Month: April 2017

Good Security Cameras to Ensure the Garage Door is Closed

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Ever forget to close the garage door?  Since closing the garage door is second nature, you really don’t think about it.  That is, until you are twenty miles away from the house or in bed ready to go to sleep.  Pointing a good security camera at your garage door allows you to scope it out without driving back home in a frenzy or getting out of bed. But what makes a good security camera for checking the status of the garage door? Well for one, it doesn’t need to be a full featured security camera.  When you stop and think … Read more

The Importance of High Definition Video on a Security Camera

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Ever watch the news where they have video of a bad guy and you can’t make out what the guy looks like?  That’s what happens when poor video quality is used on a security camera.  If only they used high definition, the video would actually be useful.  A hundred people would recognize the bad guy and he would already be in custody. The author of this article recently fell victim to bad video quality.  The accompanying photo to this article shows someone taking off with my patio furniture.  This video, courtesy of my Yi Home Camera at night was using … Read more

How to Improve Outdoor Night Vision on a Home Security Camera

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Getting a clear outdoor view at night with a home security camera isn’t always easy.  That’s especially magnified when using your home security camera through a window.  We’re going to examine ways to improve outdoor night vision on a home security camera. There are a number of different ways to get this done.  Different approaches work better for outdoor cameras versus models that are located indoors but are seeing the outdoors behind a window.  We’ll look at both scenarios. Night Time Camera Settings Many higher end cameras include night vision capabilities using infrared lights.  Using night vision on an outdoor camera will … Read more

Fix for Samsung SmartCam not Recording Event History

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This article is for Samsung SmartCam owners although I suppose the lessons learned can be applied to other manufacturers as well.  We’re going to discuss the steps to take for a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  We will look at steps that can be taken when you’re physically in the same place as the camera, and steps to take when you are thousands of miles away. The photo that accompanies the article is one of the symptoms of a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  Note all the motion events.  The motion events are validly caused by someone walking … Read more

How to Use Google Drive with a Nest Cam

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Ever try to go back in time to see what events triggered an alert on your Nest Cam?  Not easy.  Especially if you are using the default (and free) cloud service.  You need a way to go back in time and see when and what happened.  That’s where Google Drive comes into play with a Nest Cam.  In this article, we will show how to use Google Drive with a Nest Cam. Google Drive Don’t know what Google Drive is?  The best way to describe this free and valuable service is to say it’s your own virtual disk drive in … Read more